Young performers from the ITV WEST Television Workshop warm-up,
exercising mind, body and voice, for their production of BUGSY MALONE (December 2006)
As an actor you have just yourself to rely on and to ply your trade you have three elements you need to keep exercised and ready -
MIND, BODY & VOICE.
These three elements, mind, body, voice, although separate, interact with each other. They communicate with each other. In fact, they depend on each other. Communication among the mind the body and the voice is critical to the acting process.
Developing communication, a "conversation", among the mind, the body and the voice is an essential part of acting.
MIND MATTERS
The MIND is the element that tends to dominate most. Have you been in a small group where one person does almost all the talking? Not a lot of input from the other members of the conversational group.
The person doing all the talking might indeed be interesting, entertaining and knowledgeable. And if all you want to do is to sit back and be entertained, without contributing anything - great, then sit back, nod your head and say "uh-huh" once in a while.
But - the "conversation" would lack something. It would lack the depth, insight, colour, ideas, personality and surprise that the other members of the group could contribute to the conversation, if they were given a chance.
Many actors, especially beginners, let their mind dominate the acting process. As a result, their performance lacks depth, insight, range, personality and surprise. It lacks input from the other members of the acting conversation - your body and voice.
Actors who let their mind dominate their acting say: "OK, here's what I 'think' the character is all about, and 'here's how I'll play the character." Then they go about playing the character the way they think it should be played.
It might even be a passable performance. But it lacks input from the other two important elements in the acting process (body and voice) so it is sadly deficient. The actor was too quick to "think". They were too busy imposing their preconceived notions about the character to allow themself to hear the contributions their voice and body were willing to give; too preoccupied with their own notion of how the character "should" be played to allow themself the chance to explore, discover and develop a character far different from their initial thoughts.
To explore, discover, and develop a character, an actor must learn to encourage their voice and body to join the conversation, and then listen to what they say.
Your Body's Contribution to the Conversation
Everybody knows what it feels like to be hungry. If you have never felt hunger, just stop eating for a day, then you will know what mild hunger feels like! Hunger is your body communicating with your mind, saying: "Hey! I need food. Feed me!"
Your mind did not initiate this communication. Your mind did not say: "Hmmmmm. I have not had anything to eat for five hours, I think I'll make the stomach grumble and hurt a bit, and maybe I'll even start to think up food thoughts…"
Your body initiated this communication. Perhaps, you got a bit irritable, then your stomach might have started to pain you a bit, then you might have started thinking about food, then after receiving all these hunger messages from your body, gradually, your mind became aware of what was going on and you became conscious of the fact that you were hungry…. So you had a snack.
Your body initiates communication with your mind all the time:
· Your nose smells smoke, then you decide to look for fire.
· You see a big dog, hear him growl, you stop, then you decide it is wiser to walk in the other direction… and fast.
· You feel the warmth of the sun on your back at the beach, you relax and feel happy.
Of course, once the mind is aware of something, it communicates back to the body to take a course of action:
· Prepare a tuna and raspberry jam sandwich for lunch.
· Sniff the air and slowly seek out the source of the smoke.
· Move to the other side of the street and keep an eye on the big angry dog.
· Roll onto your back because your back is hot and you don't want to get sunburned.
This is a conversation between your body and your mind. This kind of conversation happens so quickly and so often, we hardly think about it. But it happens whether we think about it or not and it propels us through each day of our lives.
The actors' job is to encourage this conversation between her body and mind and to become as consciously aware of it as possible.
Encouraging Your Body to Enter the Conversation
The mind tends to dominate the acting process, especially in the beginning. There is a lot of thinking that goes on. Script analysis, character analysis, interpretation of relationships, blocking… all sorts of thinking. The conscious mind gets a real workout.
Rehearsal is the place where an actor can do their best work at getting their body involved in the conversation.
Your body can't get very involved sitting in a chair reading and thinking about a script.
You have to move!
Take a look at the first STAGE DIRECTION in a script you're working on. Maybe it's as simple as a direction for your character, let's call him FRED, to come on stage or enter room in a TV show or movie…
Imagine your first stage direction reads: "FRED ENTERS."
Seems simple enough, right? Well, not exactly. HOW is Fred going to enter? Will he enter slowly? Quickly? Will he open the door slowly? Will he fall against it? Will he close the door behind him? Will he be smiling? Frowning? Flat expression? Crying? Wailing?
Hmmmmmmm. Not so simple any more.
Read on in our imaginary script and you'll find FRED'S first line and some more stage directions. Maybe it says:
"REMOVING HIS HAT AND COAT, FRED WALKS THROUGH THE ROOM TO THE TABLE AND, SEEING A HAND-WRITTEN NOTE THERE, PICKS IT UP AND READS IT."
And you have lines too. Let's imagine the script has Fred say the following:
FRED: "No way. I don't believe it. Not again. What is it this time?"
Okay. But is Fred feeling sad? Happy? Crying? Emotionless? Weeping? Matter-of-fact? Preoccupied?
How long does it take him to remove his hat and coat? Does he place the hat and coat on the chair carefully? Do they slide out of his grasp and fall to the table? Does he toss them aside?
Does he look at the note with great interest? Does he study the note? Just give it a quick look? Does he put it down? Toss it aside? Let it flutter out of his hands? Does he carry it around for a while? Does he put it in his pocket?
Lots of decisions to make, and your scene has only just started!!!
Do we play Fred happy or sad? Well, since this is rehearsals, and a time to experiment a bit, maybe we should try it both ways, and see what happens.
If sad - how "sad" would you play Fred? Sullen? Sorrowful? Despondent? Morose? Suicidal? Crushed? A little bit blue?
Which one is right? Well, I don't know. You'll have to try acting them all, one at a time!
Of course, one cannot "act" an emotion. Emotions arise as a result of attaining or not attaining a desire. One has to perform actions that hopefully will encourage the audience to feel the intended emotions.
Try acting, for example: "A little bit blue." Actions to play might be: Shoulders slumped, head bowed low, flat facial expression, movement tends to be slow, somewhat laboured, arms feel a bit heavy...No fast movements. Maybe you sigh (not too deeply.)
Walk about your acting area for a while. Explore your acting area. Don't rush. Continue your "a little bit blue" actions.
After a while, continuing your "a little bit blue" actions, say your lines and try the hat, coat and note business.
Repeat the entire sequence numerous times while trying out different "a little bit blue" actions.
While you are going through the sequence, over and over, make yourself aware. Ask yourself: "How do these movements feel? What do these movement tell me about me, Fred? About my situation? About my feelings? How do I feel physically? The weight of my arms? The bend of my back? How does it feel as I pull my arms back to remove my coat? As I raise my arm to remove my hat?"
What does your body tell you about Fred? About who he is? About what he wants?
Let your body talk to your mind. Let your mind listen.
Now, play "Crushed". What are actions for crushed? Some might be similar to "a little bit blue", but more intense. Instead of your head being bowed a bit, your shoulders slumped, your back a bit bent, you could be "crushed". Your entire body buckled over, drawn tightly inward, hold your self together, tightly to keep from crumpling to nothingness. A weight lays heavy upon you, crushing you to the floor (literally). Go to the floor. Weep, whimper, wail with pain.
While you are going through the above sequence, over and over, make yourself aware, ask yourself, "How do these movements feel? What do these movement tell me about me, Fred? About my situation. About my feelings? How does it feel to be crumpled on the floor? To be struggling to remove my coat and hat?"
What does your body tell you about Fred? About who he is. About what he wants?
Let your body talk to your mind. Let your mind listen.
Do the same exercise numerous times. Each time perform actions for a different level of sadness: Sullen. Sorrowful. Despondent. Morose. Suicidal.
Each time, make yourself aware, ask yourself: "How do these movements feel? What do these movement tell me about me, Fred? About my situation? About my feelings?"
Let your body talk to your mind. Let your mind listen .
Exploration leads to discovery.
As you explore the full range of Fred's "sadness", you will discover a great deal about your character that simply would not have occurred to you if you had only "thought" about your character.
You will also discover elements of Fred's sadness that, although you might decide is not useful at this particular place in the play, might be extremely useful in other scenes of the play. Make notes in your script or in your actors log-book, so when you rehearse other scenes of the play, you will be ahead of the game.
After you have explored the full range of Fred's "sadness", then explore the full range of his "happiness" - blissful, buoyant, cheerful, joyous, mirthful, rapturous, sunny, pleased.
Try on different levels of "happiness", finding actions for each, exploring the range of actions using the dialogue as a foundation for the actions.
Think of other desires that your character might have. Explore the emotions that arise from the fulfilment or non-fulfilment of those desires. Emotions or states of mind that you can explore through your body. Emotions such as: fear, jealousy, anger, passion, paranoia, shyness… whatever!
Repeat the above exercise with each. Each time, make yourself aware, ask yourself: "How do these movements feel? What do these movement tell me about me, Fred? About my situation? About my feelings?"
Repeat the above process for other scenes in the plays you work on.
This is a time to explore, so be open to whatever happens.
Don't make any final determinations about any particular desires, emotions or set of actions, yet. You can start narrowing and selecting later.
Take notes as thoughts occur to you.
You'll discover that Fred is, as are most characters, quite complex. He wants many different things at different times. His success or lack of success at attaining his desires evokes many different feelings. He is both happy and sad; joyous and fearful. He is in shock and in bliss. He is many things at many different times and he can change in a matter of seconds. His desires and emotions can shift several times within a single line, at a single word, a look, an expression.
All of this is up to you to discover - with your body and your mind, working together to shape an interesting and in-depth character.
Your Voice's Contribution to the Conversation
When you are going through the above "body" exercise with the lines of your script, you will notice that your voice changes as you try out different emotions or states of mind. You have sad voices, happy voices, joyous voices, defeated voices...all kinds of voices.
Frequently, actors impose a voice on their character without exploring the full range possible. For instance. Read FRED's dialogue in an "angry" voice:
FRED: "No way. I don't believe it. Not again. What is it this time?"
Many actors would have shouted the lines. Initially, to many people, "angry" means "GET LOUD". Many times it does. But there is also a quiet anger. A spitting, hissing anger, a glaring, searing, piercing anger A rigid, taught, in total control anger. There's a sweet and melodious anger.
Depending upon the character and the circumstances of the moment, there are many ways to express anger other than raising the decibel level of one's voice.
All these ways of verbally expressing anger need to be explored.
In fact, you need to explore the dialogue with the full range of vocal possibilities, to see how things sound, to see what your voice has to say about the lines, words, phrases - independent from how your mind thinks those lines, words and phrases should sound.
First off, let's take a look at the range of your voice.
NO SOUND/SOUND
The text of a play is composed of non-verbal sounds, verbal sounds and no sounds.
Non-verbal sounds are things like: snapping fingers, the thud of a body hitting the floor, the crack of a whip, the blast of a gun, music.
Non-verbal sounds are usually used for emphasis or effect.
Verbal sounds are sounds actors make with their mouth. Sighs, screams, hisses, groans, laughs and of course, words.
No sounds are - well - no sound. Silence. The lack of sound, silence, is extremely important to an actor, and is usually not used well. Usually not at all, intentionally.
Look again at your speech:
FRED: "No way. I don't believe it. Not again. What is it this time?"
If you follow the punctuation, there are 5 places where one might stop talking - i.e. at each full-stop.
However, there really is no rule that says you have to strictly follow the punctuation. You can stop talking wherever you want to stop talking.
Let's take the same speech, and add our own punctuation. A line like this: -- means: "take a brief pause" - a bit like a comma would in regular punctuation.
"No way -- I don't -- believe it -- Not - again -- What is it this -- time?"
Now, Read the same speech, but make the silence even longer.
"No way ---- I don't ---- believe it ---- Not --- again ---- What is it this ---- time?"
Now, Read the same speech, but make the silence still longer.
"No way -------------- I don't -------------- believe it -------------- Not ------------
again -------------- What is it this -------------- time?"
Now, Read the same speech, but make the silences each 5 seconds long. It will feel like an eternity between words. But do it anyway.
In fact, you can repeat the above exercise, extending the duration of silence for as long as you want.
Seems odd, doesn't it? Well IT IS odd! People don't usually talk this way. Or do they? As you do the above exercise, make yourself aware of how the silence between words changes, alters and colours the dialogue and affects the way you think about how you might say the words.
Of course you will not say each word with 5 seconds (or more) of silence between each, but then neither should you say each word with no silence between each.
Become aware of silence.
How does silence sound? Is there ever true silence? Become aware of silence. Play with it. Experiment with it, Listen to what the silence tells you about your character. About what your character is thinking, feeling, intending. Learn to use silence… long, long, loooooooooooooong periods of silence and short periods of silence - even though the punctuation does not agree.
So much for no sound. Now for verbal sound.
Verbal sounds are made up of words and non-word sounds (yawns, screams, laughter, groans, etc.)
Non-word sounds can convey a tremendous amount of meaning and insight into character. My favourite example is Homer Simpson's distinctive grunt of annoyance on THE SIMPSON'S or his wife Marge's "Huuuurumph" sound when she gets annoyed.
These sounds need to be explored. But right now, let's explore words.
Words, otherwise known as "dialogue", are deceptive things. For instance. Let's take three words - "He ran home." A simple, declarative sentence, right? What does it mean? Well, it means - - - some guy, He, did something, ran, to someplace, home.
Well, yes and no. Let's try a little exercise. Accent the first word, He.
HE ran home.
Now the sentence takes on the meaning that a particular person, HE (as opposed to all other possible people,) ran home.
Now, accent the second word, ran.
He RAN home.
The sentence now has a different meaning. Some guy did a particular action (as opposed to all other actions,) he RAN home.
Now accent the last word, home.
He ran HOME.
The meaning is again different. Some guy ran to a particular place (as opposed to all other places,) He ran HOME.
Three words, three different meanings.
Actually, there can be many, many more meanings. What if the character who says the line, "He ran home." is telling another character a story about a man who was leaving a shop, pushed an elderly lady to the ground, then, instead of helping her, he ran home. And what if the character was appalled at the man's insensitive and uncaring behaviour.
Now the simple declarative sentence, "He ran home.", takes on another meaning. "Isn't that man a terrible, uncaring, insensitive, brute of a man."
You can make up numerous scenarios, each one conveying a different meaning. Each one interpreting the same three words, "He ran home.", in different ways. What would be the "RIGHT" way to say those three words?
There is no "RIGHT" way to say them.
So if there is no "RIGHT" way to say a line, how do you "decide" how each line of a play should be said?
Well, at first, you don't "decide". You explore. The deciding comes later.
Look again at your speech:
FRED: "No way. I don't believe it. Not again. What is it this time?"
Like our "He ran home" exercise, there are many, many ways one might say those various words. There are many, many ways one might manipulate the way one speaks dialogue to convey different meanings.
What are some of the ways one might manipulate the way one speaks dialogue?
Here are a few:
· Stress
· Pitch
· Volume
· Rhythm
· Repetition
· Diction
STRESS
Our "He ran home" exercise is an example of this manipulation of dialogue. Intentionally stressing specific words or phrases easily affects meaning. You should say your lines, stressing different words to see how the meaning is altered each time.
FRED: "No way. I don't believe it. Not again. What is it this time?"
As you stress different words and phrases, keep yourself open to how the meaning is effected. Does one variation seem to emerge as dominant, or seem "right" in the context of attaining your character's desires and what else is going on in the scene?
Does one variation seem to create new revelations about your character? New insights or a perspective you did not think of before you began exploring your lines by altering the stress of words and phrases?
You should explore variations of stress with all your lines in the early rehearsal stages.
Do not lock into a specific pattern too early. Keep yourself open and flexible.
Even later on in rehearsals, as you begin to set patterns of stressing certain words or phrases, occasionally try new ways to stress words and phrases, especially in places where you are unclear of intention or meaning or relationships among characters.
Let your voice enter the conversation. Explore the dialogue.
Let your voice lead your mind to discovery.
PITCH
Pitch has to do with how high or low your voice is. Pitch can reveal a lot about a character. A character that is afraid, agitated or nervous will often times speak in a higher pitch than they normally would.
A character who is trying to project an air of authority or control, might speak in a lower pitch than normal.
As with "STRESS", you should say your lines using different pitches.
Try saying you lines in a very high pitched voice - as high as you can make it, even if it sounds ridiculous for the character or scene.
Keep your mind open.
How does saying the lines this way affect what you think about the character, the meaning of the lines, the situation?
Now try saying the lines in as low a pitch as you can. Keep your mind open. How does saying the lines this way affect what you think about the character, the meaning of the lines, the situation?
Now try saying the lines in a sing-song fashion, starting very low, gradually getting higher and higher, then getting low again, repeating the low-high sequence over and over.
Keep your mind open.
How does saying the lines this way affect what you think about the character, the meaning of the lines, the situation?
Obviously, you probably would not say your lines this way. This is an exercise to help you explore the full range of your voice. To help you use your voice to discover something about your character that you would not be able to discover by simply thinking about your character.
Let your voice enter the conversation. Explore the dialogue.
Let your voice lead your mind to discovery.
VOLUME, RHYTHM, REPETITION, DICTION
You are probably getting the idea of what you need to do to explore the full range of your voice. Do exercises like the above ones focusing on each of the elements, VOLUME (loud/soft), RHYTHM (fast/slow), REPETITION (repeat sounds, words, phrases, even if they are not written in repetition in the dialogue), and DICTION (how precisely you pronounce a word).
With each element, explore the FULL RANGE that you are capable of using. When exploring VOLUME, get loud - REALLY LOUD Then explore soft - really soft - and everything in between and various combinations.
For RHYTHM, explore saying your lines fast - reallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreallyfast. Then explore slow - r - e - a - l - l - y - - -r - e - a - l - l - y - - -r - e - a - l - l - y - - -r - e - a - l - l - y - - -r - e - a - l - l - y - - -s - l - o - w - . Then explore everything in between and various combinations.
For REPETITION, Say the dialog but add repetition of words, words, words, words, words, words, s - s - s - s - s - s - s - ounds, or even entire phrases. - even entire phrases. -even entire phrases. even entire phrases. even entire phrases. even entire phrases…
For DICTION, speak each word as precisely and correctly as you possibly can. Den twy speek'n dem wurds all sreweded up, slurringwordtogetherand mispernuncin' woids an doin' all sertz off wired tings to dem dar werdses.
With each exercise - keep your mind open.
How does saying the lines this way affect what you think about the character, the meaning of the lines, the situation?
Remember, these exercises are to help you explore the full range of your voice. To help you use your voice to discover something about your character that you would not be able to discover by simply thinking about your character.
Let your voice enter the conversation. Explore the dialog.
Let your voice lead your mind to discovery
NON-WORD SOUNDS
Non-word sounds can convey a tremendous amount of meaning and insight into character - for example, HOMER and MARGE SIMPSON'S annoyed grunts. These sounds need to be explored.
Non-word sounds are grunts, laughs, sneezes, sniffs, sobs, sighs, and all the hundreds of other noises performers produce with their voice-parts (lips, tongue, teeth, lungs, etc.)
People make non-word sounds all the time. Often times these noises have no particularly dramatic meaning, like sneezing during hayfever season, or coughing because one has a cold. Other times the sounds might have a specific meaning, like "Mmmmmmmmmm" to indicate something tastes good, or like clearing one's throat to quietly indicate to someone you want them to shut up because they are saying something stupid or embarrassing.
An actor can use non-word sounds as character mannerisms, like a character who always sniffs loudly when they get angry. Such mannerisms would not likely be written into the script by the author. The actor would invent it by playing around with different non-word sounds until they found one that seemed appropriate to the character.
But use non-word sounds occasionally only. Keep in mind that non-word noises are generally used sparingly. Doing too much can easily have a comic effect, which might be alright if it's comedy you are after. But generally, in drama, that's not what you are trying to accomplish. For instance, if your character started sighing, moaning, or inhaling audibly before every sentence - well it would sound quite silly!
As you rehearse your dialogue, look for opportunities to include some non-word sounds. Use them for emphasis or to help establish your character.
The Final Contribution to the Conversation
The final contribution? Well that's the MAGIC you will create when your Mind, Body and Voice all make their own special contributions to the conversation that is acting…
Compiled by ADAM FRESCO (2006)
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